Rory McIlroy lauded Philly as ‘a wonderful golfing city.’ Can the Masters champ win another PGA Championship?
After winning his second Masters title earlier this year, McIlroy will go for his seventh major championship at Aronimink.
Fifteen years ago, on the advice of Jack Nicklaus, a 22-year-old Rory McIlroy took an early trip to Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Md., to get a feel for the golf course ahead of the 2011 U.S. Open. He then won the first of his six majors by eight strokes.
Many of the PGA Tour’s stops are at sites the players see often. Others, like this week’s PGA Championship at Aronimink Golf Club, aren’t. McIlroy was here for the 2018 BMW Championship and finished in fifth place, two shots behind the leaders. But the place is relatively unfamiliar, and it looks a little bit different now than it did then.
“Some majors, I haven’t went to the tournament site ahead of schedule, and I’ve done well, but for the most part when I have made an advanced trip, it’s worked out well for me,” McIlroy said Tuesday.
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Well, McIlroy was in town two weeks ago. He flew up on a Friday morning, spent five hours at the course, then went back to the airport and flew home. The tour had a signature event last week at a course, Charlotte’s Quail Hollow, that McIlroy loves, which meant that the Friday trip here two weeks ago was his only real preview of the course before this week’s major.
There’s an off-the-course reason for the early trip, too. McIlroy said coming to the course two weeks ago meant he could get home to Florida from Charlotte Sunday night, spend time with his wife and daughter on Monday, then come to Aronimink with “more of a relaxed approach going into the week.”
A relaxed McIlroy? At a major? Look out, field?
The reigning Masters champion, who won at Augusta last month for the second consecutive year after finally ending his 11-year major championship drought in 2025, is rightfully near the top of the list of favorites this week. The No. 2 player in the world is behind No. 1 Scottie Scheffler.
The golf-watching world, and the thousands of fans lining the fairways and filling the stadium seats and hospitality tents over the weekend, certainly wouldn’t mind if Sunday featured the two of them in the final pairing.
But how realistic is McIlroy’s bid to keep the grand slam hope alive at this season’s second major?
Aronimink is a course that should set up well for his game. McIlroy said something Tuesday that he said nearly verbatim last year at Philadelphia Cricket Club: “It’s, basically, bash driver down there and then figure it out from there. … When these traditional golf courses take a lot of trees out, it makes strategy not as much of a concern off the tee.”
McIlroy said Aronimink reminds him of Cricket. He finished tied for seventh there last year.
“Very wide playing corridors,” McIlroy said of Aronimink. “Still got to get the ball on the fairway. The rough is sort of hit-and-miss, but you can get some bad lies. They can really tuck the pins away with some of these slopes on the greens and just really being aware of that.”
Those green complexes are where Aronimink will show its teeth this week. Rain Wednesday night into Thursday morning should soften the course a little for Thursday’s opening round. Friday’s forecast is relatively cool and cloudy, but the weekend should bring sun and warmth, which should firm the ground up enough to bring the challenging undulating greens into play.
McIlroy leads the PGA Tour in strokes gained off the tee, and strokes gained tee-to-green, which means on average he will have himself in some pretty good spots off the tee. But his short game and putting numbers — he’s 62nd in strokes gained around the green and 105th in putting — could be what come back to bite him over the weekend if the big, sloping greens are rolling fast and the course is playing firmer.
“It’s a course where you can be super aggressive off the tee, and then there’s a little more strategy and a little more thought going into the greens,” McIlroy said.
Said 2018 BMW champion Keegan Bradley: “The greens get really crazy and they are really mounded and hilly and just like a lot of Northeast courses are like.”
Last year at Cricket, McIlroy said he felt like “we don’t play enough tournaments in the Northeast,” so he is happy to be back in the area, even if he hasn’t played Aronimink enough to know what he likes most about it yet.
“I’ve only played four competitive rounds here,” McIlroy said. “I don’t know the place that well to give you a great answer on what I like about it, but Philadelphia’s a wonderful golfing city, a lot of great golf courses, and this is certainly one of them.”
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Last year, McIlroy played the Truist at Cricket and then the PGA Championship just weeks after finally winning his first Masters. He entered Quail Hollow, the site of last season’s second major, “a little bit sort of uncertain of what my future was.”
Meaning?
“I conquered this thing that I wanted to conquer for so long, and I was a little bit — you know, I still hadn’t really reset goals or found whatever that motivation was to keep going or go forward and set myself goals for the rest of my career. It probably took me a good few months to get to that point.
“Coming into this tournament feels a lot different than what it did last year. I feel like I’ve got some nice clear road ahead to try to get some more of these majors.”
Can he get No. 7 this week?
The 108th PGA Championship returns to Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square for the first time in over six decades.
Marcus Hayes and Jeff Neiburg will host Gameday Central from Aronimink (Wednesday, 9 a.m.), and be sure to check out the PGA Championship Range Show from 12-2 p.m daily, starting Wednesday.
Whether you're going, watching from home, or just curious about what all the fuss is about, we've got you covered with our PGA guide and stories on everything from Aronimink's history and design, to what the players have to say about returning to the Philly area. We even made a golf video game so you can play the course and learn its secrets.
Get it all with our full PGA Championship preview. And follow the latest news and action from the course, right here.
